NEWS

E-waste woes

Lack of proper disposal mechanisms has resulted in e-waste
becoming one of the fastest growing hazardous waste streams in developing
nations today.

The technology
revolution today has rendered a huge percentage of the worldâ€™s population
helpless without an electronic gadget. In an age where mobile phones,
computers, televisions, audio equipment gizmos, appliances and other devices
are must-haves, rapid innovations define society. New models are being churned
out faster than it takes to dispose older gadgets. This has resulted in high
growth rates of electronic waste not just in the developed world, even in
emerging giants such as China and India. However, lack of proper disposal
mechanisms in developing nations has resulted in e-waste becoming one of the
fastest growing hazardous waste streams today.

Electronic waste is primarily produced at the end of two cycles. The first is
during the production process of an electronic item, for instance, during the
time of the manufacturing of a refrigerator. The second is when the product has
reached the end of its life cycle and the consumer is ready to dispose it off.
Both these cycles put Indiaâ€™s e-waste generation at almost a million tonnes,
growing at 20 per cent annually.

Almost half of all the unused and end-of-life electronic products lie waste in
landfills, junkyards and warehouses. Speaking only on mobile phones, by 2015,
one expects to see over 200 million mobile phones being junked. With these
increasing numbers, there is an urgent need to find proper disposal and
recycling techniques so that environmental pollution and health hazards can be
reduced.

Along with the high generation of e-waste domestically, China and India also
receive illegal imports of e-waste from developed countries. These trends will
increase the volume of e-waste generated in India and China in the future,
which, GBI Research estimates, will reach a total volume of 11.9 million tonnes
by 2020.

E-waste recycling in India is dominated by the unorganised sector as most of
the e-waste is recycled in unorganised units. This leads to e-waste finding its
way to the unsafe and unauthorised dumping yards where they are dismantled
manually and unscientifically. Some of the processes involve soaking of circuit
boards in acid, followed by manual scrapping to extract metals with the residue
thrown into open drains. There is a need for the recognition of the formal and
organised sector for proper end-to-end recycling. Besides, lack of awareness
and the huge size of the unorganised recycling sector, issues like lack of
stringent government policies on e-waste as well as support from both
government and the society continue to weigh down the recycler.

In 2008, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the body that oversees the
assessment and control of pollution in India, published guidelines for the
control and management of electronic waste in the country. The 2008 law,
brought in for manufacturers of electronic items, stated that they had to
compulsorily turn in or give away or return their electronic waste to
authorised recycling entities. The state pollution control boards, which work
under the overall supervision of the CPCB, were made responsible for proper
licensing, overseeing, documentation and statistical analysis to ensure that electronic
waste is properly handled so that environmental damage is minimised. But, like
most other well-intended laws in the country, this was not effective because no
thought was given on how to practically execute it.

Several pockets in India continue to exist where electronic and other hazardous
waste is processed without due course, often severely corrupting the local
environment and degrading the local soil quality to a level that disallows
agricultural plantation.

The government did notice! It came out with another set of rules â€“ electronic
waste management and handling rules last year. It made the producer (the
original equipment manufacturer as well the importer of products) responsible
for environmentally sound disposal of products produced by them when the
products reach the end of their life, and not just at the time of
manufacturing. It made the consumer and the bulk consumers (small, medium and
large businesses) responsible for ensuring that they dispose of e-waste to
authorised recyclers or authorised collection centres. While the new law is
certainly a step in the right direction, it does have its own limitations in
terms of how effectively it can be implemented.

Globally e-waste recycling and reuse services market is driven by limited
shelf-life of electronic products, existence of rare earth metals, growing
health and environmental concerns, and high rate of obsolescence. The global
e-waste services market has grown from $8,682 million in 2010 to $9,828.0
million in 2012. It is expected that by the year 2017, 12,263.8 thousand tonnes
e-waste generated from household appliances will be recycled and reused, as
against 3,611 thousand tonnes recycled and reused in 2010. Collective efforts
from the government, organised recyclers, corporates and consumers have helped
the developed world tackle the growing mess of e-waste.

Needless to say, organisations in India should also work with e-waste
management firms to work towards a sustainable solution for e-waste.

Some companies in India have started implementing effective e-waste management
programmes. With resources, budget and strong incentives existing within such
organisations to ensure proper e-waste management, these companies are the
harbinger of coming change in e-waste in developing countries.

Finally, technology plays a very important role in every individualâ€™s life
today and the same also wants to live in a healthy environment. It will never
be possible for entrepreneurs to completely eradicate the problem of e-waste if
they do not receive the support of the common man in this regard. It is about
time that we not just leave such a grave issue in the hands of the government
but also join in together as individuals and businesses to get it right this
time.